4.
Matthew 23:35 – Jesus implied that the close of Old Testament historical
scripture was the death of Zechariah (400 B.C.). This excludes any books
written after Malachi and before the New Testament.

1.
There were other books that some people claimed to be scripture. Some of them
were written in the intertestamental period and called Old Testament
psuedopigrapha (or “false writings”). Others were written after the apostolic
age (2nd century A.D. and following). These are called New Testament
psuedopigrapha.

2.
There were some other more sincerely written books that had devotional value
and reveal some of the insights of Christian leaders after the 1st century
(Shepherd of Hermas, Didache, etc.). Although they are valuable historically,
and even spiritually helpful, they also do not measure up to the standards of
canonicity and were not recognized as scripture.

"Athanasius

Athanasius is the first one known to
have used canon in such a context.

Origen

Origen used the word canon to denote
what we call the rule of faith, the standard by which we are to measure and
evaluate everything.

The church did not create the canon.
Rather, Christians came to recognize the books for what they were:God's
inspired revelation. All Scripture is God- breathed (inspired) and profitable
for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness
2 Timothy 3:16.

The Old Testament canon

One way to answer the question: How
and when were the books of the Bible put together? would be to say that
ultimately it was God who decided which books would be included in the biblical
canon and which books would be excluded from the biblical canon.

It was not a matter of some council
or synod deciding which books they were going to have in the Old Testament.
Rather it was a matter of God convincing the church which books should be
included in the Bible.

The Council of Jamnia

The Council of Jamnia, held in about
A. D. 90, established and closed the canon of the Old Testament for nearly all
Jews. It has been their canon ever since and consists of the twenty- seven
books of what we know as the Old Testament. However, the order of the books in
the Hebrew Bible differs from the order of the books in what Christians call
the Old Testament.

The canon of the whole Bible

All of the books of the New
Testament as we know them today we officially recognized:

In the Eastern Church in A. D. 367
in Athanasius 'Festal Letter;

In the Western Church in A. D. 397
at a conciliar decision at Carthage.

The sixty- six books which we are
now used to seeing in our Bibles were recognized as being the canonical ones in
the above 4th century letter and council.

Before the first church council
formally ratified the question about which books made up the Christian
Scriptures, the decisions had already been made. The council only went on
record, approving what was already acknowledged.

Some religious persons have had an
incorrect view as to the basis of the determination of the true canon. They
have said that the books were made canonical on the basis of the decision of
church councils. In reality all that the church leaders could do would be to
discover and recognize that list of books which were obviously inspired.”

Roy D. Merritt

Canon of Scripture (RE STATED)

May be generally
described as the “collection of books which form the original and authoritative
written rule of the faith and practice of the Christian Church,” i.e.,
the Old and New Testaments. The word canon,
in classical Greek, is properly a straight rod, “a rule” in the widest
sense, and especially in the phrases “the rule of the Church,” “the rule of
faith,” “the rule of truth.” The first direct application of the term canon to the Scriptures seems to be
in the verses of Amphilochius (cir. 380 a.d.),
where the word indicates the rule by which the contents of the Bible must be
determined, and thus secondarily an index of the constituent books. The
uncanonical books were described simply as “those without” or “those
uncanonized.” The canonical books were also called “books of the testament,”
and Jerome styled the whole collection by the striking name of “the holy
library,” which happily expresses the unity and variety of the Bible. After the
Maccabean persecution the history of the formation of the Canon is merged in
the history of its contents. The Old Testament appears from that time as a
whole. The complete Canon of the New Testament, as commonly received at
present, was ratified at the third Council of Carthage (a.d. 397), and from that time was accepted throughout the
Latin Church. Respecting the books of which the Canon is composed, see the
article Bible. (The books of
Scripture were not made canonical by act of any council, but the council
gave its sanction to the results of long and careful investigations as to what
books were really of divine authority and expressed the universally-accepted
decisions of the church. The Old Testament Canon is ratified by the fact that
the present Old Testament books were those accepted in the time of Christ and
endorsed by him, and that of the 275 quotations of the Old Testament in the
New, no book out of the Canon is quoted from except perhaps the words of Enoch
in Jude.